Main & Tale

DMSO Potentiation Therapy DMSO – The Magic Bullet For Cancer


CLINIC TREATMENT (and Theory): The DPT Protocol (i.e. DMSO Potentiation Therapy) uses DMSO to allow chemotherapy to “target” cancer cells (by opening the ports of the cancer cells). While this is a superb cancer treatment, orthodox medicine is not interested. The problem with this protocol is that less chemotherapy (probably 1/10th of a normal dose) is used because the chemotherapy targets the cancer cells. Thus, less profits are achieved by the medical and pharmaceutical industry.

There was a medical doctor in Georgia who had a cancer clinic that used DMSO and chemotherapy. In his clinic, he actually had the DMSO bind to very small doses of chemotherapy. With this protocol the chemotherapy was able to kill far more cancer cells and do far less damage to the non-cancerous cells!!

DMSO can bind to: adriamycin, vinblastine, 5-fluorouracil (i.e. 5-Fu) and cisplatin per the Oregon Health Sciences University.

I had a friend who went to this clinic as well as an IPT clinic (another alternative cancer treatment).

This person said the DMSO/chemotherapy protocol was significantly more effective than IPT.

Even though this medical doctor was using chemotherapy (which made the pharmaceutical companies happy), he was also curing cancer. The FDA shut him down.

Even though this protocol is not available in the United States, this article will discuss the theory behind this protocol and the theory of using DMSO for treating cancer (the Independent Cancer Research Foundation is researching the use of DMSO with substances other than chemotherapy).

The book: Treating Cancer With Insulin Potentiation Therapy, by Ross A Hauser, M.D. and Marion A Hauser, M.S. provides more information about DMSO (e.g. pages 152-153).

Article on Natural Treatments For Advanced Cancer Patients

Introduction

Have you ever heard of a “P.E.T. Scan?” When using a PET Scan a technician will give a cancer patient a solution of radioactive glucose (i.e. a radioactive tracer or tagged glucose). Since cancer cells consume 15 times more glucose than normal cells, the cancer cells will absorb 15 times more of this radioactive glucose than normal cells.

The result is that when they do the PET Scan the cancer cells show up in the X-Ray.

Orthodox medicine thus knows how to target cancer cells. If orthodox medicine were truly interested in curing cancer, don’t you think they would look for ways to “tag” glucose in such a way that the glucose targeted cancer cells and killed them? In other words, don’t you think orthodox medicine would look for a way to target cancer cells with the intent to kill the cancer cells rather than simply have them show up on an X-Ray?

Such a cancer treatment does exist!! I call it the DMSO/Chemotherapy Protocol. But rather than use glucose to target cancer cells it uses DMSO (Dimethylsulfoxide). Essentially:

1) The DMSO “binds” to (i.e. chemically attaches to) certain kinds of chemotherapy drugs, then

2) The DMSO (which always targets cancer cells) will target the cancer cells, and

3) The DMSO will drag the chemotherapy into the cancer cells, and

4) The chemotherapy (which is now able to target cancer cells) will kill the cancer cells.

Normally, chemotherapy targets “fast-growing” cells, meaning normally chemotherapy does NOT target cancer cells. But wih this treatment chemotherapy targets only cancer cells. Only very small doses of chemotherapy are needed and there are no side-effects from the chemotherapy since all of the chemotherapy targets cancer cells.

There was actually a medical doctor who used this DMSO / chemotherapy treatment (i.e. which I call “DMSO Potentiation Therapy”). But rather than give that medical doctor the Nobel Prize for curing cancer, the FDA raided his office and shut him down permanently.

A Brief Introduction to DMSO

The orthodox medical community claims to be looking for a “magic bullet” that helps chemotherapy target cancer cells. Why is finding a “magic bullet” so important?

Chemotherapy does not target cancer cells, and because of this, chemotherapy:

1) Kills far more normal cells than cancer cells, and

2) Damages and toxifies many of the normal cells that do survive.

Thus, if a substance could be found that helps chemotherapy target cancer cells, FAR LESS chemotherapy would be needed and the patient would have VIRTUALLY ZERO SIDE-EFFECTS from chemotherapy. This is both because less chemotherapy would be needed and because only the cancer cells would be affected by the chemotherapy, meaning normal cells would not be damaged and killed by chemotherapy!!!!!

In addition to all of this, if such a substance were found and used the “true cure rate” for orthodox medicine would rise from 3% to above 90%!! Most cancer patients die because of the complications of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Because of the way chemotherapy works, doctors cannot give enough chemotherapy to cure cancer because the patient would die from the side-effects BEFORE the cancer was cured. A “magic bullet” would solve all of these problems.

If such a “magic bullet” were used FIRST by orthodox medicine, meaning the cut/burn/slash treatments were avoided (except in rare cases where there is imminent danger from a tumor blocking fluids or pressing against something), a 90% true cure rate would be easy to achieve. In fact, with alternative medicine, for those people who know what they are doing, a 90% cure rate, by those who avoid orthodox medicine, is very easy to achieve. Orthodox medicine could do the same thing if they found and used a magic bullet.

But the fact of the matter is that the leaders in the medical community have absolutely no interest in finding a “magic bullet.” A “magic bullet” would cost the drug companies hundreds of billions of dollars, patients would have less hospitalization, less doctor visits, etc. The fact is, no one wants a “magic bullet” to be found. The evidence that this is true is that two “magic bullets” are already known to exist, but no one is using them except for a handful of doctors.

DMSO Vendor

Insulin Potentiation Therapy

For example, in the 1940s it was discovered that cancer can be treated with insulin. Soon after it was found out why. Insulin helps certain kinds of chemotherapy target the cancer cells by making it much easier for the chemotherapy to get inside of cancer cells!! This led to the development of Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT).

“Beyond these metabolic effects of insulin here, what is further considered to be operative is that at least some of the ten thousand fold increase in the cytotoxic effect of methotrexate [a chemotherapy drug] is due to an increased intracellular concentration of the drug due to insulin’s physiological action in altering cell membrane permeability. It is thought that this effect exists on account of the insulin receptors on the cancer cell membranes, and that these facilitate the transmembrane transport of the chemotherapeutic drug into the intracellular compartment of these breast cancer cells.”http://weeksmd.com/articles/cancer/Insulin_potentiation_therapy.html
In the early days of IPT a person had to be put into an insulin coma in order for IPT to be effective. This is no longer the case, but the orthodox medical community still ignores this treatment.

Article on IPT

DMSO

No later than 1968, it was discovered that there was another product that could target cancer cells, but this product actually bound to the chemotherapy. In this article (which will be linked to below):

“Haematoxylon [a dye] Dissolved in Dimethylsulfoxide [DMSO] Used in Recurrent Neoplasms [i.e. cancer cells or tumor cells],” by E. J. Tucker, M.D., F.A.C.S., and A. Carrizo, M.D. in International Surgery, June 1968, Vol 49, No. 6, page 516-527
it was shown that DMSO targeted cancer cells!! Is it any wonder that the referee of the article stated:

“In spite of my criticisms, there are some parts of this study which do interest me very much. The fact that the Haematoxylon [a color die, which allowed the researchers to see which cells absorbed the DMSO and haematoxylon] and D.M.S.O. solution had a particular affinity for neoplasms [i.e. cancerous cells], and did not stain other tissues in animals could be most significant.”
In other words, these researchers had discovered something that could bind to chemotherapy and then target cancer cells. They had found a second “magic bullet”!!

The combination of DMSO and Haematoxylon was being used as a cure for cancer in this study. The combination performed very, very well. However, it was unfortunate that chemotherapy was used in many of the cases. Since DMSO binds to some types of chemotherapy (which was probably not known at the time), it is not know whether the success of the treatment was caused by the DMSO/chemotherapy combination or the DMSO/haematoxylon combination.

In any case, even though both DMSO and haematoxylon are purely non-toxic and purely natural (both come from trees), this is not a treatment that should be used at home. It can cause severe internal bleeding in some cases. It is far beyond the scope of this article to get into the use of this treatment.

The point is that the “magic bullet” had been found, which this website calls “DMSO Potentiation Therapy (DPT).” Obviously, further research using DMSO and chemotherapy, or DMSO and haematoxylon, never happened.

Why don’t you ask your oncologist why research on the magic bullet discovered in 1968 was not followed up on!! You might mention the scientific study discussed above.

In later studies DMSO was found to be a superb potentiator of Adriamycin, Cisplatin, 5 Fluorouracil, and Methotrexate, and others. For more information about DMSO and chemotherapy see the excellent book (which talks about both IPT and DMSO being combined with chemotherapy):

Treating Cancer With Insulin Potentiation Therapy, by Ross A. Hauser, M.D. and Marion A. Hauser, M.S.

Absolutely nothing has been done about these discoveries for almost 40 years!! The complete article discussing DMSO and Haematoxylon can be found at:

The Original DMSO and Haematoxylon Journal Article

You might ask your oncologist why your chances of survival are only 3% (ignoring all of their statistical gibberish such as “5-year survival rates” and deceptive terms like “remission” and “response”), when your chance of survival would be over 90% if they used DMSO with very small doses of chemotherapy.

It would be better for medical doctors to treat cancer patients with the right treatment than to have patients treat themselves at home. Medical doctors can diagnose better, treat better, watch for developing problems better, etc. Unfortunately, doctors are using treatments that have been chosen solely on the basis of their profitability rather than their effectiveness.

DMSO is a highly non-toxic, 100% natural product that comes from the wood industry. But of course, like IPT, this discovery was buried. DMSO, being a natural product, cannot be patented and cannot be made profitable because it is produced by the ton in the wood industry. The only side-effect of using DMSO in humans is body odor (which varies from patient to patient).

The FDA took note of the effectiveness of DMSO at treating pain and made it illegal for medical uses in order to protect the profits of the aspirin companies (in those days aspirin was used to treat arthritis). Thus, it must be sold today as a “solvent.” Few people can grasp the concept that government agencies are organized for the sole purpose of being the “police force” of large, corrupt corporations.

While it is generally believed that orthodox medicine and modern corrupt politicians persecute alternative medicine, this is not technically correct. What they do is persecute ANY cure for cancer, it doesn’t matter whether it is orthodox or alternative. The proof of this is IPT and DMSO, which can both be combined with chemotherapy. It appears that orthodox medicine persecutes alternative medicine only because there are far more alternative cancer treatments that can cure cancer than orthodox treatments.

Another substance that targets cancer cells is being researched at Purdue University and other places: folic acid. This too will be buried unless it can lead to MORE PROFITABLE cancer treatments.

But alternative medicine is not interested in combining DMSO with chemotherapy. DMSO will combine with many substances, grab them, and drag them into cancer cells. It will also blast through the blood-brain barrier like it wasn’t even there.

DMSO has been combined successfully with hydrogen peroxide (e.g. see Donsbach), cesium chloride, MSM (though it may not bind to MSM), and other products.

(Note: The issue has come up several times whether it would be a good idea to mix DMSO with full-strength chemotherapy. This question generally comes up when someone wants to take cesium chloride and DMSO with their chemotherapy. The theory would lean against such advice, however, in actual practice many patients on chemotherapy have also taken DMSO. It does not seem to cause a problem, but whether the DMSO binds to the chemotherapy would depend on which chemotherapy was being used. DMSO does not bind to every type of chemotherapy, only certain kinds (the exact kinds are not totally known because the FDA forced all research on DMSO to stop).

DMSO Vendor

Here is an article on DMSO Potentiation Therapy (DPT):


DMSO Potentiation Protocol

DPT and IPT

DMSO Potentiation Therapy (DPT) is generally not used by itself. When it is used, it is generally used in combination with Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT). These two treatments are very synergistic because the DMSO binds to chemotherapy and the insulin opens up the membranes of the cancer cells.

The result of combining these two treatments is that there is a double effect on the chemotherapy targeting the cancer cells and getting inside the cancer cells.

The book Treating Cancer With Insulin Potentiation Therapy, mentioned above, discusses which kinds of chemotherapy bind to DMSO and it talks about which kinds of chemotherapy work best with insulin.

DMSO and MSM

DMSO and MSM, when used together, have been shown to cause cancer cells in vitro to revert back to being normal cells. The only way this can happen is if they kill the microbe(s) inside of the cancer cell and/or completely reverse the anaerobic metabolism.

However, the only treatment designed to take advantage of this discovery is still an experimental treatment. It is not experimental due to toxicity, it is perfectly safe to use, it is only experimental in the sense that no one knows yet how to convert what was discovered in the lab into an actual cancer treatment.

It is also not known whether MSM actually helps the DMSO revert cancer cells into normal cells. DMSO, by itself, has been shown to revert many types of cancer cells into normal cells.

MSM Vendor

DMSO / Cesium Chloride

DMSO helps cesium chloride get inside of cancer cells, though cesium chloride is perfectly capable of doing this by itself. What DMSO is really used for is to get the cesium chloride through the skin, into the blood stream. Neither cesium chloride nor DMSO should be taken orally, thus it is a perfect marriage to mix the two together and let the DMSO carry the cesium chloride through the skin.

DMSO is especially effective with brain cancer patients because of how quickly it gets past the blood-brain barrier, but it can be used productively with any type of cancer.

In a case study, one brain cancer patient had a tumor in his brain pressing against one of his optic nerves. When he mixed DMSO with the cesium chloride he could literally feel the cesium chloride and DMSO getting into his tumor within 15 minutes. He could feel it because his tumor was pressing against an optic nerve.

DMSO is usually used as a topical application to the skin. DMSO will penetrate the skin and help get the cesium chloride, and many other alternative cancer treatments, into the cancer cells.

If you use DMSO you may get a rash. Just spray some water on the rash and it will go away. The rash is caused by the DMSO dehydrating the skin.

DMSO should not be taken orally unless it is mixed with at least 8 ounces (i.e. 1 cup) of water or some type of juice. Even seventy percent DMSO (actually it is 99.9% pure DMSO, mixed with 30% distilled water) could cause dehydration in the digestive tract unless it is mixed with enough water or juice! DMSO should never be taken orally for more than a short time. Even when taken with enough liquids it will cause stomach problems!

It is highly advised that the Cesium Chloride / DMSO Protocol be used under the direction of an expert, either by telephone or in a clinic setting. For all practical purposes, the FDA and AMA have shut down the use of cesium chloride and DMSO in a clinic setting inside the U.S. Thus, in the U.S. there is no choice but to use a vendor who is an expert in safely using the protocol. The Cesium Chloride / DMSO Protocol goes into this issue in more depth, but keep this critical issue in mind!

Note: Due to the FDA harassment of DMSO (and by the way, a lot of research on DMSO has been suppressed), vendors of DMSO cannot sell it for medical reasons. Thus, when you visit a web site that sells DMSO it will be sold as a “solvent.” Do not be concerned, DMSO is an all natural product and is absolutely nontoxic at recommended dosages.

Here is a link to an article on the Cesium Chloride Protocol (with DMSO). This article in turn links to a vendor who sells liquid ionic cesium chloride and provides expert telephone support to anyone using this protocol!! Specifically ask Larry to include DMSO in his protocol.

Cesium Chloride Protocol (i.e. pH Therapy)

DMSO/Chlorine Dioxide (DMSO/CD)

DMSO can also be used with chlorine dioxide, colloidal silver, Vitamin D3, and other substances which kill microbes.

In fact, DMSO/CD (i.e. DMSO/Chlorine Dioxide) is currently the best cancer treatment on earth that can be used at home. The dose of chlorine dioxide can reach 3 or 5 drops or more each hour, 12 times a day.

Here is the article on DMSO/CD:

DMSO/CD Protocol

DMSO Protocol and Safety Warnings

DMSO is an amazing product. Unfortunately, there are some strong warnings that go with its use. Do not be alarmed by these safety warning, they are easy to implement.

First, pregnant women, women who may be pregnant, women who may become pregnant, or women who are nursing, should not use DMSO – period! Even though there is no evidence that DMSO causes birth defects, the similarity between early fetal cells and cancer cells is so great that it is better to err on the side of caution.

Second, do NOT let it come into contact with your eyes. Again, there is no evidence this will cause problems, but it is better to err on the side of caution.

Third, do NOT use plastic, latex or rubber gloves, or any other kind of gloves, when handling DMSO. The DMSO may bind to the gloves and take the substance into your cells causing severe illness. A technician who was working with the scientists who originally discovered DMSO became very sick from handling the newly discovered DMSO with lab gloves. While some surgical gloves may be of such quality that they can be used to handle DMSO, if you use any type of gloves you do so at your own risk.

However, these rules create a problem. It is highly advised to use gloves when administering DMSO on the skin or else the hands will become very wrinkled. Fortunately, there are simple tests to see if the DMSO is binding to the gloves and creating a danger.

If the person rubbing the DMSO onto the skin of a cancer patient wants to use a plastic, latex or rubber glove, there are two simple ways to test if the DMSO is binding to the plastic, latex or rubber. First, you can soak one finger tip of the glove in DMSO for 24 hours. If there is no damage to the glove after the test it is OK to use. Or you can pour some DMSO into the inside finger tip of the glove for 24 hours. Then turn the glove inside-out and see if there is any damage where the DMSO was. If not, it is OK to use.

Fourth, do NOT let the DMSO come into contact with any type of clothing or anything else.

In short, it should go straight from the bottle, into a mixing glass (made of glass, wood, ceramic or metal) and then the mixed product should be put on the skin, above (or on) where the cancer cells are located.

The following substances are always safe to use with DMSO: GLASS, WOOD, CERAMIC or METAL containers.

Rigid plastic containers are generally safe to use as well, such as spray bottles. In fact, spray bottles, of glass, rigid plastic or metal, are the preferred way of administering DMSO. Of course, it will still need to be spread by hand.

Having said all of that DMSO is a superb product and very safe to use if you take reasonable precautions.

The DMSO can be purchased as a liquid, gel or cream. The rules are the same for each.

Important Notes About Purchasing DMSO

It is very important that the DMSO you purchase has not had anything added to it to make it unsuitable for human consumption. Most commercial vendors in the U.S. do sell “food grade” DMSO, meaning it is safe for human consumption. However, I should emphasize that DMSO vendors cannot advertise their product is for human consumption because the FDA, as part of their effort to destroy alternative medicine, has outlawed DMSO for human consumption. Vendors must sell DMSO as a “solvent.” The way you can tell whether it is food grade, is this: if the vendor also sells DMSO cream/gel in a jar, and has safety warnings, then all of their DMSO is food grade unless otherwise stated.

This is a key issue especially for those outside of the U.S. Every country has different laws and different procedures for the manufacture of DMSO. Outside of the U.S. the DMSO vendors probably do not sell the DMSO cream in a jar, thus you will have to ask them, or look for documentation, that it is safe for human consumption.

Here is an important comment about DMSO:

“The first quality that struck Dr. Jacob about the drug was its ability to pass through membranes, an ability that has been verified by numerous subsequent researchers. DMSO’s ability to do this varies proportionally with its strength–up to a 90 percent solution. From 70 percent to 90 percent has been found to be the most effective strength across the skin, and, oddly, performance drops with concentrations higher than 90 percent. Lower concentrations are sufficient to cross other membranes. Thus, 15 percent DMSO will easily penetrate the bladder.In addition, DMSO can carry other drugs with it across membranes. It is more successful ferrying some drugs, such as morphine sulfate, penicillin, steroids, and cortisone, than others, such as insulin. What it will carry depends on the molecular weight, shape, and electrochemistry of the molecules. This property would enable DMSO to act as a new drug delivery system that would lower the risk of infection occurring whenever skin is penetrated.”http://www.dmso.org/articles/information/muir.htm
Here is a DMSO vendor of both liquid and cream (the liquid is 99.9% pure DMSO mixed with 30% distilled water, meaning it is 70% pure DMSO and 30% distilled water). The reason 70% is chosen is because it is less harsh on your skin and it is still a mixture that will be absorbed well by the skin.

Of course, as mentioned above, it is sold only as a solvent:

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DMSO

Homeless, Alcoholic, And Unemployed Sent to Concentration Camps

Pre-war camps

The Dachau camp was created for holding political opponents. In time for Christmas 1933 roughly 600 of the inmates were released as part of a pardoning action. The picture above depicts a speech by camp commanderTheodor Eicke to prisoners about to be released.

Inspection by the Nazi party andHimmler at the Dachau Protective Custody Camp on 8 May 1936.

Use of the word "concentration" came from the idea of using documents confining to one place a group of people who are in some way undesirable. The term itself originated in the "reconcentration camps" set up in Cuba by General Valeriano Weyler in 1897. Concentration camps had in the past been used by the U.S. against Native Americans and by the British in the Second Boer War. Between 1904 and 1908, the Schutztruppe of the Imperial German Army operated concentration camps in German South-West Africa (now Namibia) as part of their genocide of the Herero and Namaqua peoples. The Shark Island Concentration Camp in Lüderitz was among the biggest and the one with the harshest conditions.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they quickly moved to ruthlessly suppress all real or potential opposition. The general public was intimidated through arbitrary psychological terror of the special courts (Sondergerichte).^[7] Especially during the first years of their existence these courts "had a strong deterrent effect" against any form of political protest.^[8]

The first camp in Germany, Dachau, was founded in March 1933.^[9] The press announcement said that "the first concentration camp is to be opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5,000 persons. All Communists and – where necessary – Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who endanger state security are to be concentrated there, as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening these prisons."^[9] Dachau was the first regular concentration camp established by the German coalition government of National Socialist Workers' Party (Nazi Party) and the Nationalist People's Party (dissolved on 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners."^[9]

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps. Almost every community in Germany had members taken there. The newspapers continuously reported of "the removal of the enemies of the Reich to concentration camps" making the general population more aware of their presence. There were jingles warning as early as 1935: "Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not come to Dachau."^[10]

Between 1933 and the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, more than 3.5 million Germans were forced to spend time in concentration camps and prisons for political reasons,^[11][12][13] and approximately 77,000 Germans were executed for one or another form of resistance bySpecial Courts, courts-martial, and the civil justice system. Many of these Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, which enabled them to engage in subversion and conspiracy against the Nazis.^[7]

As a result of the Holocaust, the term "concentration camp" carries many of the connotations of "extermination camp" and is sometimes used synonymously. Because of these ominous connotations, the term "concentration camp", originally itself a euphemism, has been replaced by newer terms such as internment camp, resettlement camp, detention facility, etc., regardless of the actual circumstances of the camp, which can vary a great deal.

World War II

Jewish prisoners are issued food on a building site at Salaspils concentration camp, Latvia, in 1941.

After September 1939, with the beginning of the Second World War, concentration camps became places where millions of ordinary people were enslaved as part of the war effort, often starved, tortured and killed.^[14] During the War, new Nazi concentration camps for "undesirables" spread throughout the continent. According to statistics by the German Ministry of Justice, about 1,200 camps andsubcamps were run in countries occupied by Nazi Germany,^[15] while the Jewish Virtual Library estimates that the number of Nazi camps was closer to 15,000 in all of occupied Europe^[16] and that many of these camps were created for a limited time before being demolished.^[16] Camps were being created near the centers of dense populations, often focusing on areas with large communities of Jews, Polish intelligentsia, Communists or Romani. Since millions of Jews lived in pre-war Poland, most camps were located in the area ofGeneral Government in occupied Poland, for logistical reasons. The location also allowed the Nazis to quickly remove the German Jews from within Germany proper. In 1942, the SS built a network of extermination camps to systematically kill millions of prisoners by gassing. The extermination camps (Vernichtungslager) and death camps (Todeslager) were camps whose primary function was genocide. The Nazis themselves distinguished between concentration camps and the extermination camps.^[17][18] The British intelligence service had information about the concentration camps, and in 1942 Jan Karski delivered a thorough eyewitness account to the government.

Internees

The two largest groups containing prisoners in the camps, both numbering in the millions, were the Polish Jews and the Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) held without trial or judicial process. There were also large numbers of Roma (or Gypsies), ethnic Poles, Serbs, political prisoners, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses,Catholic clergy, Eastern European intellectuals and others (including common criminals, as declared by the Nazis). In addition, a small number of Western Allied aviators were sent to concentration camps as spies.^[19] Western Allied POWs who were Jews, or whom the Nazis believed to be Jewish, were usually sent to ordinary POW camps; however, a small number were sent to concentration camps under antisemitic policies.^[20]

American soldiers view a pile of corpses found in the newly liberatedBuchenwald concentration camp in April 1945

A mass grave inside Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Sometimes the concentration camps were used to hold important prisoners, such as the generals involved in the attempted assassination of Hitler; U-boat Captain-turned-Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller; and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who was interned at Flossenbürg on February 7, 1945, until he was hanged on April 9, shortly before the war’s end.

In most camps, prisoners were forced to wear identifying overalls with colored badges according to their categorization: red triangles for Communists and other political prisoners, green triangles for common criminals, pink for homosexual men, purple for Jehovah's Witnesses, black for Gypsies and asocials, and yellow for Jews.^[21]

Treatment

Many of the prisoners died in the concentration camps through deliberate maltreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or were executed as unfit for labor. Prisoners were transported in inhumane conditions by rail freight cars, in which many died before reaching their destination. The prisoners were confined to the boxcars for days or even weeks, with little or no food or water. Many died ofdehydration in the intense heat of summer or froze to death in winter. Concentration camps also existed in Germany itself, and while they were not specifically designed for systematic extermination, many of their inmates perished because of harsh conditions or were executed.

In the spring of 1941, the SS – along with doctors and officials of the T-4 Euthanasia Program – introduced the Action 14f13 programme meant for extermination of selected concentration camp prisoners.^[22] The Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps categorized all files dealing with the death of prisoners as 14f, and those of prisoners sent to the T-4 gas chambers as 14f13. Under the language regulations of the SS, selected prisoners were designated for "special treatment (German: Sonderbehandlung) 14f13". Prisoners were officially selected based on their medical condition; namely, those permanently unfit for labor due to illness. Unofficially, racial and eugenic criteria were used: Jews, the handicapped, and those with criminal or antisocial records were selected.^[23]:p.144 For Jewish prisoners there was not even the pretense of a medical examination: the arrest record was listed as a physician’s “diagnosis”.^{[23]:pp.147–148} In early 1943, as the need for labor increased and the gas chambers at Auschwitz became operational, Heinrich Himmler ordered the end of Action 14f13.^[23]:p.150

After 1942, many small subcamps were set up near factories to provide forced labor. IG Farben established a synthetic rubber plant in 1942 at Monowitz concentration camp (Auschwitz III); other camps were set up next to airplane factories, coal mines and rocket propellant plants. Conditions were brutal and prisoners were often sent to the gas chambers or killed if they did not work quickly enough.

After much consideration, the extermination of the Jewish prisoners (the “Final Solution”) was decided by the high-ranking officials at the Wannsee Conference in 1942.^{[citation needed]}

Towards the end of the war, the camps became sites for medical experiments. Eugenics experiments, freezing prisoners to determine how downed pilots were affected by exposure, and experimental and lethal medicines were all tried at various camps. Female prisoners were routinely raped and degraded in the camps.^[24]

Total casualties

The lead editors of the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean, cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, operating from 1933 to 1945. They estimate that 15 million to 20 million people died or were imprisoned in the sites.^[25]

Some of the most notorious slave labour camps included a network of subcamps. Gross-Rosen had 100 subcamps,^[26] Auschwitz had 44 subcamps,^[27][28][27] Stutthof had 40 sub-camps set up contingently.^[29] Prisoners in these subcamps were dying from starvation, untreated disease and summary executions by the tens of thousands already since the beginning of war.^[30]

Liberation

Starving prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp liberated on May 5, 1945

The camps were liberated by the Allied and Soviet forces between 1944 and 1945. The first major camp, Majdanek, was discovered by the advancing Soviets on July 23, 1944. Auschwitz was liberated, also by the Soviets, on January 27, 1945; Buchenwald by the Americans on April 11; Bergen-Belsen by the British on April 15; Dachau by the Americans on April 29; Ravensbrück by the Soviets on the same day;Mauthausen by the Americans on May 5; and Theresienstadt by the Soviets on May 8.^[31] Treblinka, Sobibór, and Bełżec were never liberated, but were destroyed by the Nazis in 1943. Colonel William W. Quinn of the U.S. 7th Army said of Dachau: "There our troops found sights, sounds, and stenches horrible beyond belief, cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind."^[32][33]

A concentration camp victim identifies an SS guard in June 1945

In most of the camps discovered by the Soviets, almost all the prisoners had already been removed, leaving only a few thousand alive—7,000 inmates were found in Auschwitz, including 180 children who had been experimented on by doctors.^[34] Some 60,000 prisoners were discovered at Bergen-Belsen by the British 11th Armoured Division,^[35] 13,000 corpses lay unburied, and another 10,000 died from typhus or malnutrition over the following weeks.^[36] The British forced the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses and place them in mass graves.^[37]

Types of camps

Commander-in-Chief of all Allied Forces, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, witnesses the corpses found at Ohrdruf concentration camp in May 1945.

According to Moshe Lifshitz,^[38] the Nazi camps divided as follows:

• Hostage camps (Geisellager): concentration camps where hostages were held and killed as reprisals.
• Labor camps (Arbeitslager): concentration camps where interned inmates had to do hard physical labor under inhumane conditions and cruel treatment. Some of these were sub-camps (Aussenlager - "Outer Camps") built around a larger central camp (Stammlager) or were "operational camps" established for a temporary need.
• POW camps (Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager / Stalag - "Main Camp for Enlisted Prisoners of War"): concentration camps where enlisted prisoners of war were held after capture. POWs were usually soon assigned to nearby labor camps (Arbeitskommandos - "Work Details"). Officer POWs had their own camps (Offizierslager / Oflag). Stalags were for Army prisoners, but specialized camps ((Marinelager / Marlag ("Navy camps") and Marineinterniertenlager / Milag ("Merchant Marine Internment Camps")) existed for the other services. Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager Luftwaffe / Stalag Luft ("Air Forces Camps") were the only camps that detained both officers and non-commissioned personnel together.
• Camps for rehabilitation and re-education of Poles (Arbeiterziehungslager - "Work Instruction Camps"): camps where the intelligentsia of the ethnic Poles were held, and "re-educated" according to Nazi values as slaves.
• Collection and Transit camps : camps where inmates were collected (Sammellager) or temporarily held (Durchgangslager / Dulag) and then routed to main camps.

The main German camps and extermination centers, 1943

• Extermination camps (Vernichtungslager): These camps differed from the rest, since not all of them were also concentration camps. Although none of the categories are independent, many camps could be classified as a mixture of several of the above. All camps had some of the elements of an extermination camp, but systematic extermination of new-arrivals occurred in very specific camps. Of these, four were extermination camps, where all new-arrivals were simply killed – the "Aktion Reinhard" camps (Treblinka,Sobibór and Belzec), together with Chelmno. Two others (Auschwitz and Majdanek) were combined concentration and extermination camps. Others like Maly Trostenets were at times classified as "minor extermination camps".^[39]

Post-war use

Though most Nazi concentration and extermination camps were destroyed after the war, some were made into permanent memorials. In Communist Poland, some camps such as Majdanek, Jaworzno, Potulice andZgoda were used by the Soviet NKVD to hold German prisoners of war, suspected Nazis and collaborators, anti-Communists and other political prisoners, as well as civilian members of the German, Silesian andUkrainian ethnic minorities. Currently, there are memorials to both Nazi and communist camps at Potulice; they have helped to enable a German-Polish discussion on historical perception of World War II.^[40] In East Germany, the concentration camps at Buchenwald andSachsenhausen were used for similar purposes. Dachau concentration camp was used as a detention centre for the arrested Nazis.^[41]

See also

• Extermination through labor
• Extermination camp